Wednesday, June 8, 2011

CC Progress (2011-06-07)

Between repaints I have not forgotten to do little bits of work on the CC.

+ Learned how to add roads and grade crossing properly
+ Added water features and sculpt the land to make it feel "organic"

I am finding all sorts of goodies in G-TraX's Portland Terminal assets, and with just a little reluctance since it is payware, it will be required for if I ever post it for download. This shouldn't be a problem though. The route is very well priced for the content it provides, there are some freeware scenario's coming out for it by RW fans (available for download at RWA), and its just fun, which is the bottom line when you think about it.

Aside from that I have been texturing the hills, salt ponds, and wet lands. Which leads me into some modeling woes. The first is that there are no textures currently available that due justice to salt ponds and wet lands. There are some that come close, but they don't make it believable. I may have to create specific decals for these areas, or learn to make textures... which actually interests me.

There is also the issue with trees. I just called out for some help out on RWA, but let me share my dilemma here on my own site.

First, please review this Google map of Niles Canyon, and take note of the broccoli like trees that cover the hills:

These trees do not lose their leaves in autumn and winter, and can grow very large.

I researched this a bit and found that Nile Canyon contains: Coast Live Oak, Valley Oak, Big-leaf Maple, California Bay, Blue Elderberry, and Alders. Of these I need the Coast Live Oak for a couple reasons. The first is authenticity, the Freemont Cottonwood (misspelled in the object list) is nice and works in a pinch but is too small, and even though they are deciduous in game they act as if evergreen. The second is asset count. It is taking 3 to 4 Cottonwoods to fill the space of one Oak. In some tiles I am already over 1000 objects and its still not enough to do justice to this area. I simply need a larger tree, or a larger asset that will work well with hills.

The second tree I am looking for is a Eucalyptus. Specificly (hold on to your hats now, as we derail into botany) Eucalyptus globulus or Blue Gum. They were imported from Australia (some interesting history behind that), so I tried looking for Australian RW sites, of which there are few, but none had downloads. I have seen many a post in their forums about the lack of native assets so I may be out of luck here.

Does anyone know where I can find a Coast Live Oak and Blue Gum? Or perhaps if you are so inclined, make a set of assets? I am willing to trade with repaints (or if need be, cash).

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